AUGUST 27, 1998-vol30n1: UB budget for 1998-99 is $230.1 million

VOLUME 29, NUMBER 35 THURSDAY, JULY 23, 1998

UB budget for 1998-99 is $230.1 million

By SUE WUETCHER
News Services Associate Director

UB has received a 1998-99 budget allocation from SUNY of $230.1 million under the new Resource Allocation Methodology (RAM), an increase of $8.6 million over the 1997-98 base budget of $221.5 million.

The $230.1 million includes $77.7 million in revenue and $152.4 million in state tax support, a figure that is adequate to cover contracted salary adjustments, noted Senior Vice President Robert J. Wagner.

Wagner stressed that under RAM, UB now will retain the tuition, fee and other revenue the university generates, which under the previous budget-allocation system had been pooled into SUNY's income offset account.

He disputed claims by United University Professions that under RAM-a new methodology developed by system administration to distribute state tax support to the campuses-UB will lose $3.1 million this budget year.

According to the union, UB was slated to receive $232.2 million in the Executive Budget released by Gov. Pataki in January, but under RAM, that figure would decline to $229 million, a loss of about $3.1 million.

Wagner said that the Executive Budget figure used by the union-what he called a "recommended appropriation"-"doesn't really tell the story" since SUNY receives a lump-sum allocation from the state. "Those numbers don't provide an adequate basis for a year-to-year comparison," he said.

A look at previous years' budget figures shows that while in the end UB received more than the Executive Budget recommendation in both 1994-95 and 1996-97, the university received less in 1993-94, Wagner said.

The Executive Budget figure cited by UUP "is a reference point," he noted. "But if you look at it historically, it is not a number that allows you to make year-to-year comparisons." Some years UB receives more than the executive recommendation, and some years it receives less, he said, adding that a more valid comparison is one based on the base-level budget figures.

"We did not take a $3 million reduction," he stressed.

With the first budget money distributed under the new RAM, Wagner said that UB "fared as we had expected, but not as we hope to in the future."

He noted that UB has some unique programs and services, such as the law school and its library-support system, as well as some aspects of its research and public-service missions, that currently "are not accounted for in the model."

UB is working with system administration to identify those kinds of areas "that need to be included as part of RAM," he said.

Wagner said that the 1998-99 financial plan maintains the $5.1 million in savings university-wide that was part of the 1997-98 plan. He said these savings are necessary to balance the budget "because university revenues continue to remain flat."

The money will be used to fund initiatives in areas that have been deemed "institutional investments."

Among them are the College of Arts and Sciences, the Office of the Vice President for Health Affairs, the Center for the Study of Urban Social Work Practice, the Department of Civil Engineering and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, the new Department of Physiology and Biophysics and the Center for Structural Biology.

Investments also will continue to be made in information technology, specifically developing student access to computers; setting up laboratory and other research support for new faculty members; a merit-based undergraduate scholarship program designed to upgrade the profile of the entering freshman class, and the intercollegiate athletics program, Wagner added.